The ICC is facing potential sanctions from Trump and Congress due to the arrest warrant for Netanyahu.

The International Criminal Court's decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Jewish state's former defense minister has put the court in the crosshairs of a powerful American sanctions regime.

Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ex-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of planning to combat Hamas terrorism in the Gaza Strip.

Nearly 1,200 people were killed by Hamas in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, including over 40 Americans.

The Israeli news outlet Kan reported that President-elect Trump's administration plans to impose sanctions on the ICC judges who issued the warrants, including the court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.

The British chief prosecutor, Khan, is currently under investigation due to accusations of sexual misconduct, which he has vehemently denied, stating that there was "no basis to such claims," according to reports.

Professor Avi Bell, a law professor at the University of San Diego and Bar Ilan University in Israel, and the founding dean of the Israel Law and Liberty Forum's annual program on law and democracy, stated on Planet Chronicle Digital that the International Criminal Court (ICC) threatened to charge American soldiers for alleged crimes in Afghanistan despite lacking jurisdiction. However, it was only President Trump's sanctions against the ICC during his first term that forced the ICC to comply with the law and abandon its threat to prosecute Americans. According to Professor Bell, sanctions against the ICC will be effective, while persuasion will not.

Mike Waltz, Trump's nominee for national security adviser, stated on X that the ICC and U.N. can expect a strong response to their antisemitic bias in January.

In a recent Planet Chronicle interview, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., increased the stakes by stating, "Any ally who attempts to aid the ICC will face sanctions."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center's associate dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, cautioned democratic states about the potential persecution they may face from the judicial activism of the world's leading war crimes court, located in The Hague, Netherlands.

The warrant issued by a kangaroo court undermines justice and is a triumph for Iran and its terrorist allies. Israeli leaders are innocent of defending their people from genocidal terrorists. The first countries to confirm they will arrest PM Netanyahu are France and the Netherlands, and the number of nations could reach 124. Democracies, beware, you could be next.

Both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations deemed the ICC an imperfect judicial system for Americans and opted not to join the international organization.

"The arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant are legally a joke, but they constitute a very serious development," Bell said. "Under Karim Khan’s predecessors as ICC prosecutor, the ICC was merely ineffective. Khan has ushered in an era of political buffoonery in which the court devotes the bulk of its resources to political grandstanding. With the new indictments, the court is grandstanding on behalf of terrorists and some of the world’s worst criminals."

Fadi El Abdallah, ICC spokesperson, stated to Planet Chronicle Digital that the organization does not comment on Bell's criticism.

The legal scholar advised countries to abandon the ICC, stating that the court will only change course if it faces significant consequences. Countries should withdraw from the Rome Statute and stop paying dues. They should impose sanctions on the ICC and refuse to cooperate with it. As long as the ICC continues to issue warrants for individuals without jurisdiction on fabricated charges, ICC personnel should face criminal sanctions for attempted kidnapping and supporting terrorism.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), established in 2002, derives its authority from the signatories of the Rome Statute, which specifies four core international crimes that the court will prosecute: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. These crimes are not subject to any statute of limitations but are limited to offenses committed after the statute's entry into force.

Bell stated that he does not believe the ICC warrants were motivated by personal anti-Semitism among the judges. Instead, he argued that the ICC has a history of targeting politically weak countries, including Israel, due to its widespread popularity in the West, particularly among progressives. Bell believes that the ICC's bias against Israel is a reflection of a larger institutional moral decay, rather than just bigotry.

Gabriel Noronha, a former U.S. Department State adviser on Iran, who is now a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, stated to Planet Chronicle Digital that the ICC was aware of the potential consequences of its legal action against Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, but chose to disregard diplomacy and face the repercussions of the United States.

If U.S. sanctions are imposed, ICC personnel will not be able to enter the U.S. and their assets will be frozen in America.

Noronha pointed out that the sanctions could potentially encompass family members.

Graham's remarks were echoed by Noronha, who suggested that a second Trump administration could employ a "Diplomatic strategy to impose penalties on countries that cooperate with these particular ICC warrants."

The ICC's decision to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant has been criticized by some European countries, with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg calling it "utterly incomprehensible" and a "disservice to the Court's credibility."

It is illogical to equate members of a democratically elected government with the head of a terrorist group.

An arrest warrant was issued for the deceased Hamas terror leader Muhammad Deif by the ICC.

The International Criminal Court's decision to issue arrest warrants against Israeli leaders was flatly dismissed by Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala.

The ICC's ruling weakens authority in other cases by treating elected representatives of a democratic state as leaders of an Islamist terrorist organization, as stated in X.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused the ICC of interfering in an ongoing conflict for political purposes, stating that the decision to issue a warrant for Netanyahu over his conduct of the war in Gaza undermined international law and escalated tensions.

Hamas has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union.

The Associated Press and Planet Chronicle' Peter Aitken contributed to this article.